1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing data. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computer usable code for managing confidential information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In application development, large amounts of time and resources are required to build applications. Some businesses develop applications internally. Such an ability is often a luxury enjoyed only by those businesses or entities that have sufficient resources. In other cases, internal development is impractical given the internal resources available and time deadlines that are set to develop applications. Business application development is often outsourced to an external contractor. Oftentimes, the customer organization does not want to expose their business details to the external contractor. On the other hand, for both development of applications and ongoing maintenance of these applications, a contractor needs to know how the application will function.
Currently, two solutions are present for this particular problem. One solution involves trusting the contractor with the sensitive or confidential information. When the application involves a government contract, this situation usually involves time and expense for obtaining a security clearance for each employee of the contractor company that will have access to the product during development or maintenance. Another solution involves giving the contract a “cover story”. The cover story is one known to the contractor for purposes of illustrating the needed business logic. The different labels or names given various components are fictitious ones that are later changed when the application is complete. This solution, however, does not facilitate ongoing maintenance by a contractor.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved method, apparatus, and computer usable code for managing confidential or sensitive information in an application for development and maintenance of the application.